Skunk Works' Polecat printable robotic plane

It's not often we're sitting on a sophisticated 3D printer and four tons of material, but Lockheed Martin apparently wanted to see if they could "print" out a new plane from their Skunk Works facility in California. The result is the Polecat, a 91-foot wide, four-ton unmanned flying wing with the major claim to fame being that most of its internal structures were rapid prototyped on said 3D printers. Our broke selves still have to stick with printing out our airplanes in paper (though our folding techniques have significantly advanced since the Cold War), but it's strange to think of a future where aircraft (and landcraft, and seacraft) aren't built by people and machines, but instead are squirted out of tanks of polymer and sent on their merry little ways.

[Via Futurismic]

[Ron Smith @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:26AM]

Sunk works makes another advance in aerospace; U-2, SRr-71, F-117, not the ink-jet

[Kowalski @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:26AM]

i, for one welcome our printed overlords.

[Lysia @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:29AM]

Almost like a slow version of a star trek replicator!

[john conners @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:31AM]

Pardon, General. Someone calling themselves "skynet" is asking to talk to you, Sir?

[Rick @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:32AM]

good snag, Kowalski!

[jimdigritz @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:46AM]

and more breaking news....

"The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line July 23rd, 2006. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, July 23rd. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."

[** Hello Moto ** @ Jul 23rd 2006 10:38AM]

Do you know if it was a plastic printer or a laser one?

I was at the airshow at oshgosh and at the nasa area they had 2 small laser printers. They put in a dust like plastic/wood and then a laser hist areas where it they want more dust to be applyed and microsopic layres are created. They had interlocked gears (Should have brought a camera) that couldn't be taken apart but could turn, they were made together. Overall very cool stuff. I think its 100% the only method that will be used once it works with metal. You can create a solid hollow box, and other basicly ipossible things.

[** Hello Moto ** @ Jul 23rd 2006 10:41AM]

Ha! I was right! And I guess it does already work with metal. Werid.

'In rapid prototyping, a three-dimensional design for a part - a wing strut, say - is fed from a computer-aided design (CAD) system to a microwave-oven-sized chamber dubbed a 3D printer. Inside the chamber, a computer steers two finely focussed, powerful laser beams at a polymer or metal powder, sintering it and fusing it layer by layer to form complex, solid 3D shapes.'

[slyecho @ Jul 23rd 2006 11:15AM]

The problem with this is its high cost, which is why it is only used for prototyping.

[shmengie @ Jul 23rd 2006 12:03PM]

sheeee-yit! i's gonna print me a woman!!

[furtim @ Jul 23rd 2006 12:28PM]

But the advantages to rapid prototyping are so huge that you can bet the costs will be brought down eventually. That might not happen today or in the next five years, but maybe more in the range of 25-50 years from now this will become a standard method.

[JCA @ Jul 23rd 2006 1:11PM]

Amongst the very few facts I know about 3D prototyping is that the finished result is pretty brittle...and thus can't be subject to much stress. Will this plane and shmengie's new woman be made from a different type of prototyping material/process?

[MadScientist @ Jul 23rd 2006 2:15PM]

Woot Woot! Gonna print me that world domination robot I started last fall!!!! Oh, wait, that is supposed to be top secret, SHHHHHHHHHHH.

[slyecho @ Jul 23rd 2006 2:45PM]

And another thing I forgot to mention is that the printed components are not really durable. Try comparing glued together metal powder to solid cast iron. Prototyping is where it is most useful. You can quickly produce the mechanism being developed to see if it works as it is intended.

[SED TV Guy @ Jul 23rd 2006 3:15PM]

As a pilot I think I prefer the more traditionally built aircraft.

[Gil @ Jul 23rd 2006 3:15PM]

slyecho: did you even bother reading the article before deciding to impart your wisdom with the world?

1. The whole idea is to create CHEAP UAVs. I quote:
"It was designed in part to test cheaper manufacturing technologies.
...
But speed and stealth performance are not everything: cost matters too. And since UAVs tend to crash more often than piloted planes, the race is on among UAV makers to make them cheaper. The Skunk Works thinks a technique called 3D rapid prototyping, or 3D printing, is the best way to lower costs."

2. The materials are not your average RP stuff.
"Now the strength of parts printed this way has improved so much that they can be used as working components. I quote:

About 90 per cent of Polecat is made of composite materials with much of that material made by rapid prototyping."

3. This is for limited numbers of UAV squads that are DISPOSABLE so you really don't mind that they won't last 20 years. I quote:

"The classic way is to set up a production line with very heavy-duty fixed metal tools that hold everything in the right place." That is too expensive an approach for the low production runs that reconnaissance UAVs are likely to need, he says."




Remember kids: read the article before smashing your head against the "add your comments" button

[Jason @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:07PM]

Take a look at the The Arcam EBM machine. Prints fully dense, functional parts out of Titanium and other materials:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUIipa3AgNg

[Joe @ Jul 23rd 2006 9:33PM]

I live and work in China for a plastics facility. We own a rapid prototyping machine using ABS strand that looks like weed whacker line material. The material is quite expensive. It has to be the coolest thing ever. My engineers can draw just about anything and print it. These abs parts when more than 2mm thick are extremely solid and durable too.(comment on the brittle parts is not true anymore.) The last couple of years there have been huge advances in this process and prototype machines(3D printers) can be had for as little as $25,000 bucks. Forget buying an new car and pick up one of these babys.... www.dimensionprinting.com This allows us to test parts in real life applications before investing in an injection mold that is commmonly between $4,000 and $7,000. You name it, I can probably prototype it.

[AJ @ Jul 24th 2006 9:29AM]

What kind of ppm (planes per minute.. get it? get it? lol) do you get out of one of those printers? :)

[Pat @ Jul 24th 2006 9:30AM]

The problem with a cheap UAV is the EO or SAR packages already cost more then the airframe and avionics.

Stabilized hyperspectral cameras and phased array radars with ATR processors are not getting cheaper at the same rate.

[Jeff @ Jul 24th 2006 10:51AM]

How did this article make it on to Engadget without a mention of what this technology means in regards to the inevitable robot takeover and enslavement of mankind? We're teaching machines to make planes? And, quickly? Ehhx-cellent! =)

[Daniel Skeen @ Jul 24th 2006 4:42PM]

What is cool is that they could turn out thousands of much smaller gliding smart bombs that could be used as a stand off weapon from a B-2 using this same tech.

Think of it, a wing of B-2's could wipe out hundreds of targets in a single strike!